Statutory returns rebuilt by hand each cycle
Returns assembled in spreadsheets by a small number of experienced staff, with the method held in their heads. The risk is concentrated in individuals and the effort recurs every period.
Public sector
Statutory returns and performance reporting generated from one governed model.
Public bodies report to more audiences than any commercial organisation: members or ministers, regulators, auditors, residents and the press. Each wants a different cut, and none accepts a number that cannot be explained.
- Statutory returns produced from a governed model rather than by hand
- Published and internal figures reconciled by construction
- Cross-service analysis possible for the first time
- Platform cost right-sized to the organisation, with the saving documented
We build reporting estates that produce statutory returns and public-facing transparency from the same governed model, so the figure in the committee paper and the figure on the open data portal cannot diverge. Where budgets are tight, we are direct about the cheapest adequate architecture rather than the largest one.
We work with local authorities, central government agencies, housing associations, education bodies, emergency services and larger charities, and we are used to procurement frameworks, transparency obligations and genuinely fixed budgets.
What goes wrong
Recurring failure modes in public sector
Service data trapped in case management systems
Line-of-business systems with restrictive reporting modules and little appetite from suppliers to open them up, so cross-service analysis is impossible.
Transparency figures that contradict internal reports
Published and internal numbers produced through different routes, which is how a press enquiry becomes a governance incident.
Budget pressure versus platform cost
Analytics platforms sized for a larger organisation, consuming budget that should fund the service. Right-sizing is a legitimate and frequently needed piece of work.
Metrics
Metrics and their definition errors
Each metric with its definition and the error that most often distorts it. If our reading is wrong for your business, that disagreement is a productive starting point.
| Metric | Definition | The trap |
|---|---|---|
| Cost per case or per resident | Total service cost over cases handled or residents served in the period. | Overhead allocation and the definition of an open case drive the figure; both need a written rule applied consistently across services. |
| Demand and caseload trend | New, open and closed cases by service, period and cohort. | Re-referrals and transferred cases must not inflate new demand; they need their own category. |
| Statutory timescale compliance | Cases completed within the statutory period, over cases due. | Clock-stop rules differ per duty and must be modelled individually rather than approximated with one shared rule. |
| Rent collection rate | Rent collected over rent due in the period, for housing providers. | Arrears brought forward and the treatment of former-tenant arrears materially change the rate; label each basis separately. |
| Repairs completed first time | Repair jobs resolved on the first visit, over jobs raised. | Follow-on works and multi-trade jobs need an explicit rule or the figure flatters performance. |
Use cases
What we typically build
Corporate performance reporting
One governed model feeding member and executive reporting, with narrative captured against each measure and a clear owner per indicator.
Statutory return automation
Returns generated from the governed model with validation rules mirroring the published guidance, and an audit trail showing how each figure was derived.
Demand and capacity planning
Caseload forecasting by service and cohort to inform establishment and budget decisions, with scenario comparison.
Open data publication
Automated publication of transparency datasets from the same model that feeds internal reporting, with suppression and anonymisation applied in the pipeline.
Housing and asset analytics
Stock condition, compliance certificates, arrears, voids, repairs performance and damp-and-mould case tracking in one model.
Grant and funding reporting
Expenditure and outcome reporting per funding stream with the evidence trail funders require, produced without a parallel spreadsheet exercise.
Integration
Source systems we connect to
- Case management systems
- Finance and ERP systems
- Housing management systems
- HR and payroll systems
- Asset and repairs systems
- GIS and address gazetteers
- School and student information systems
- Public registers and open datasets
Regulatory context
Regulatory context by market
- UK: UK GDPR, Freedom of Information Act, Local Government Transparency Code, Procurement Act 2023 routes
- UK: Data Protection Act 2018 Part 3 where law-enforcement processing applies
- EU: GDPR, Open Data Directive and high-value dataset obligations, NIS2 for in-scope public entities
- Germany: federal and Land data protection law, Onlinezugangsgesetz digitisation duties
- Switzerland: cantonal information and data protection acts, public procurement rules
- Ireland and Belgium: national GDPR implementation, FOI and administrative transparency regimes
Questions
Public sector: common questions
Yes. We are used to framework routes, competitive quotations and direct award where the rules allow it, and we can provide the documentation packs these processes require. We would rather fit a small, well-scoped lot than bid for something oversized.
There is almost always a route: a reporting replica, a supported export, an API behind a module you already own, or a contractual data-access clause at renewal. We have also built pragmatic scheduled extracts where that was the only option. We document the limitations so the analytics constraints are understood rather than blamed on the data team.
By choosing the smallest architecture that meets the requirement, using Pro licences rather than capacity where the reader count does not justify it, keeping the estate small enough to be maintained by your own staff, and training them during the build. We also tell you when something you have been quoted elsewhere is larger than you need.
Yes, provided suppression and aggregation are applied in the pipeline and tested. We implement the suppression rules agreed with your information governance lead, then test them against the published output, including drill-through paths, which is where disclosure most often leaks.
Services that apply here
Power BISemantic modelling, DAX and report delivery with one agreed definition per measure.GovernanceOwnership, cataloguing, classification and access evidence, implemented in the tools teams already use.Managed serviceMonitoring, incident response and change delivery for Power BI, Fabric and Azure platforms.
Next step
Analytics work in public sector
A 45-minute working session with an engineer rather than a sales call. You describe the problem; we set out what we would build, in what order, and what it is likely to cost.
Answered within one working day, by the engineer who would do the work